True Beauty
by My Story's Ending
Summary: Before there was Roxas, there was another #13. This is her story.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 is here~! And Chapter 2 will be up probably by tomorrow! Have a Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 1:**

Her eyes had adjusted but her mind had not quite done the same thing. She couldn't process why this place was so dark, when there was such a large moon. That moon. She couldn't apprehend that either. It held such an unusual figure. A heart. The thing that truly confounded her was exactly what the place was. She was in the alley of a large city. She knew that. However, it was so bizare.

As she walked, the bottoms of her jeans became soaked from the puddles she stepped through. The rain was cold as it beat down on her face and bare shoulders. It caused her hair to frizz, as her curls began to reshape. Every minute she would raise her hands up and try to smooth down the curls. Soon this habit started to occur every thirty seconds, then ten, eventually she became obsessed with keeping the tawny ringlets subdued.

There wasn't a soul in the city. She had been roaming for hours and hadn't seen a single person. However, this place didn't seem nearly as lonely as the world she had grown up in. She was never...pleasing to the eye. She didn't have that perfect figure that everyone around her always strived for. Her brown hair was so unruly and never stayed in place. There were so many times she had to schedule emergency hair appointments due to the fact that she ran the straightener over it so many times it burns and frayed.

She grew up believing if you weren't beautiful you were nothing. Her big boned physique never changed no matter how much she wished it to. She wasn't overweight, there probably wasn't even a bit of fat on her body because she exercised so much. But it was never enough. She didn't just outcast herself either. Everyone shunned her for her appearance. She didn't really have any friends. She had never had a boyfriend. The pretty girls teased her, the boys wouldn't even talk to her. She would go out of her way to avoid people when the bell rang and they had to go to their next classes. Most people didn't even know her name. She never spoke unless she had to. She was a total recluse. That's why this place seemed perfect to her, there was nobody her to bother her. No one she could compare herself to, no one that would make her life completely miserable.

She continued meandering the alleys and streets for about another hour. At this point she was sopping wet and cold. She wrapped her arms around herself in hopes of conserving body heat. Suddenly, something caught her eye. Though the city was filled with skyscrapers, this one was different. It must have been the tallest, and there was something odd behind it. She walked closer, slowly, cautiously. It was a castle of some sort. Yes, definitely a castle. But, it was floating. As if this world hadn't been strange enough. It seemed so far off. There was no way she would continue walking all that way. Her energy was spent already.

However, she continued gradually toward the large skyscraper. And once she arrived she let herself fall to the ground, she pressed her back against the dry metal wall of the building. It had been the first time she had rested since she found herself here. She allowed her eyes to close as she let her head tilt backward and she sighed. She sat like that for a few minutes, completely calm. Come to think of it. Calm is the only thing she had felt since she had been here. She wasn't scared, nor happy. She didn't really feel anything at all.

She was abruptly interrupted by an odd sound, and a shadow over her eyelids as if something was blocking the light from the moon overhead. She slowly lowered her head before opening her eyes. When she did, she came to focus on a pair of black boots. Slowly, she began to raise her eyes, almost meeting those of a violent orange. Her eyes did not rest there for very long though, just as it had been before. She could never hold eye contact with anyone. A man stood there with an outreached hand and there was silence for a few seconds.

"It would be wise for you to come with me"

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**Nope! You don't get to know her name yet P I hope you like it. Review?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry if there are any typos in this one. My spell check is down and my human spell checker isn't online :( Enjoy and Review! Merry Christmas!**

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**Chapter 2**

Everything about the man that stood in front of her contrasted. He had long resplendent silver hair, much longer than hers, which didn't even touch her shoulders. His hair was not matched by his skin. It was dull, not pale, but it lacked the shine of health. It probably appeared much tanner against the lightness of his hair. Notwithstanding, neither could be compared to those eyes. So vivid, almost as if there was a fire burning inside them before but it had since burned out ,and the color was the remnants of the still burning embers.

She didn't accept his hand. She simply remained seated where she was.

"Don't you want to know? Know where you are, know what you're doing here?"

She shook her head. She couldn't really care. She was comfortable for once. This place seemed perfect for her.

"What's your name?" he said his voice monotone, and calm, yet extremely serious and demanding. Everything about it made her want to answer.

A whisper escaped her lips.

"Ah, what a pretty name," he was willing to say anything to get her to listen, to agree. "My name is Xemnas." He waved his hand and her name appeared. It hung in the air in front of her for a few moments. The letters glowed and were transparent gold. Before she could analyze the letters more they began to spiral around. The spiraling made here dizzy, despite sitting down, she couldn't stop her eyes from following each letter around in the gyre. After each letter she moved on to the next, and when she exhausted all letters, she began with the first one again. The circuit was soon interrupted when Xemnas thrusted his harm in the air. A large silver X appeared and halted the spinning.

"Xiraria?" she said, puzzled, he voice only slightly more audible than before.

"Your name."

"That's not my name, I told you my name..," a phrase she had once repeated many times. It flowed from her mouth easily.

"You haven't quite grasped it yet have you? You aren't you anymore."

Now that was something new to her. People had tried to control her before but to tell her she wasn't even her own self! That was over the line.

"What kind of sick joke is this?" She had almost been convinced that this was her perfect world.

"Talk about black with a capital 'B'," blurted out a voice from behind Xemnas. This man had equally piercing eyes, however, his were green. He had strange purple makings under his eyes, and his hair was pure red and appeared as if he utilized too much hair gel to hold it in it's peculiar spikes.

"Axel!" The first man snapped, "Show some respect."

"Well, I though I was. At least I wasn't going to leave her sitting in the dark!"

"Number Eight, I suggest you go back to the castle now, I will be bring her back soon enough, and she will be fully informed. Now, stop this nonsense"

Axel blew air from his nostrils with annoyance, "suit yourself," he then proceeded to open a dark portal and stepped through, disappearing from site. This added pounds of confused to her already baffled mind.

Xemnas sighed, placed his index finger and thumb on either side of his nose, and pinched them together, as if trying to relieve a headache. It was silent for a moment, as he attempted to think of a way to explain everything.

"What is the last memory you have?" he posed the question, hoping to get off to a start of the explanation.

She thought for a moment, and then she directed her eyes at the ground. She searched around as if she was looking for something, but in fact, she was searching her own brain for the answer. She couldn't remember. She looked up at him swiftly, not making eye contact but focusing on the area between his eyes and she shook her head with confusion.

"Ah, I see," he turned slightly looking down one of the dark streets the stemmed off from the skyscraper, "Come with me, I'll explain on the way."

"W-Where are we going?"

"To a place where I can explain all the answers"


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm so sorry this is is kind of short! :( I swear the next ones will be longer and more entertaining. Introduction chapters are so hard! _ Enjoy, Rate, and Comment.**

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**Chapter 3**

The information fell upon her like a brick on her heart, or apparently, lack thereof. She almost didn't believe it. To think she had lost her heart to some monster. She had zero recollection of it, as if the incedent had never happened, even though all of the evidence was explained how she couldn't even fell emotion anymore, which explained a lot of questions she previously had.

She reluctantly went with him, taking advantage of a chance for some company, whether they had hearts or not. She hoped, that if they lacked hearts, they couldn't feel hate, or any emotion that would result in the same adverse treatment of her old life.

**X/X/X/X/X/X/**

She must have been so deep in thought that she didn't even notice when Xemnas led her into a portal and she appeared in a completely new place. Much brighter, the walls were all completely white, and blinding for the first few moments. As her eyes adjusted she could see the shapes and figures of people, and more and more began to appear through portals.

She recognized the red haired man from before, but there were many faces that were completely new to her. Most of them were dressed in what most would called street clothes, while only two or three were wearing the same cloaks that Xemnas adorned. There was even one person who seemed to have appeared in his pajamas.

Some of their faces revealled boredom, others excitement, but most pure annoyance and distaste. She tried to calm herself by reminding herself over and over again that they had no emotions, they couldn't be mad at her already. She looked around the room and counted twelve people total, including Xemnas.

Sounds of murmers and other conversations filled the room. Nothing was audible, though, from where she stood. Each person seemed to have there own set group of people with whom they spoke. Like cliques. Each conglmerating with each other in a different area of the room.

Shouts filled the air as Xemnas ordered them all to silence themselves and pay attention.

"Our newest member. Xiraria. She will be number thirteen. I need not do introductions for each and every one of you, I'm sure you will cross paths with her eventually."

"Is that all you called us here to do?!" a man shouted, his hair light blonde with gray strands slowly showing through from age. His face, while shrunken in however, did not show any signs of aging. She began to notice that a common trait among these people were their intense eyes. She knew her pale brown eyes could never match any of those, "Some of us actually have work to do!" His voice cracked occationally, his voice the only other thing that may signify age.

"Dude. Vexen, chill. A few minutes break to meet our newest member," something about the way he said this made her uneasy. The man didn't seem too harmful. He did seem like a bit of a trouble maker though. He adorned an eye patch, and there was a large scar on her face. His eyes made her slightly uneasy. They were a stealy yellow. It made her think of a movie she had seen when she was younger. A Christmas movie. In it the boy seemed to focus on how sinister the eyes of the bully were.

"Whatever you have to do, go back to it. That announcement was the only thing that converned you." He paused and waited for people to started heading out, "Saix, you stay here, I have a job for you."

A man with long azure hair stopped as he was exiting the room and turned on his heel. He slowly appraoched Xemnas and Xiraria.

"We're going to go the the training room. We need to discover what her abilities are."

**I hope you liked it!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I told you I would upload something larger ^^ Enjoy, rate, and review please! Thankees :)**

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**Chapter 4**

The training room was colored the same as every other room and hall in the castle. White. As she walked across the floor she could feel a bit of spring in her step, and it wasn't happiness. There were springs under the floors, placed there to help people jump higher and break the fall when they were knocked down.

"Every high ranking nobody has an ability. They control something, most of the time, and element. We need to find out what you control, if you are to be any use to us."

The man with the blue hair stepped forward. It was now that she noticed that he had the same yellow eyes as the man she saw before, Xigbar. But his eyes seemed different, they were mellow, calm. There wasn't anything intimidating about this man's eyes.

"You will be fighting Saix, the more danger you are in the more likely you are to discover your powers." He turned on his heel and opened the space between her and Saix.

He stopped in front of him before exited fully. "Don't hesitate to kill her, if she can't survive she will be no use to us," he murmered just loud enough for her to hear.

Xiraria had never fought in her life. She didn't even know how to initially take a fighting position. She wished she had, at this point she was thoroughly alarmed. Those calm eyes she had just been fixated on a moment ago, didn't seem so soft anymore. His pupils had disappeared and the whites of his eyes were no where to be found. He had summoned a large weapon that almost looked like a flat spiky club.

Before she could analyze the situation anymore, she found herself flying across the room before she slammed against the wall. She shook her head and quickly moved her hand to her side where she received the brute of the attack. She struggled to her feet before just being knocked down again, he left shoulder slamming against the floor, and then again when she bounced up from the springs and landed again.

Saix jumped back and she almost began to feel some hope return before he slammed his claymor on the ground and surge of energy slammed her against the wall again. She felt hopeless, she couldn't even fight back, she didn't know how.

Another hit.

"_Don't hesitate to kill her"..._

She didn't want to be killed. She had to fight, but how? She closed her eyes.

"_Every high ranking nobody has an ability."_

What was hers? That would obviously be the only way to protect herself. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter, like a kid trying to convince themselves that they had special powers, when they didn't.

This time she was hit in the stomach.

The pain just convinced her to try harder. Desperation often triggers many things in a person, and she hoped it would trigger this endowment Xemnas spoke of.

She felt as if she had been kicked in the head as she flew up in the air and hit the ceiling like a rag doll and she crashed against the floor once more.

**/X/X/X/X/X/X/**

Loud bangs could be heard from outside there sparring room, as two members walked by, Zexion and Demyx. Two members that are not usually seen together.

"Wow, she's really taking a beating isn't she?" remarked the blond. He was wearing a set of tight white jeans and a slightly looser fitting blue shirt with some unknown, underground band name written on it. Over top was a black jacket with zippers stylishly placed in random locations.

"I supposed. We don't need to worry, though. We haven't lost a member to this test yet. No matter how many times they have to go through it."

**/X/X/X/X/X/X/**

Saix seemed to have stopped for a few minutes, and Xiraria was about to raise herself to her feet. She looked at him and he almost seemed out of breath. She took this as a chance to run at him, fists swinging. It became obvious that she had never learned to fight. Her very movements were the exaggeration of someone mindless flailing their arms.

It didn't take long for Saix to catch his breath, though, and easily knock her back.

A flash.

When Xiraria opened her eyes she looked down at the ground. Where she expected her hands to be she discovered something surprising, a pair of large orange paws. Large claws pushed out and retracted each time she tensed up. She had metamorphosed into a tiger.

She set her eyes on Saix but she was quickly caught off guard when she felt something brush up against her. She turned quickly and layed eyes upon a second cat, or the same species. This cat was larger than her, obviously male and more aggressive. To have something else on her side eased her nerves as she was ready to attack and prove that she belonged somewhere.

However, when she and her new found partner had turned and were poised to attack, Saix had returned to his initial demeanor. His eyes were calm again, and his weapon had disappeared. Xemnas had also appeared by his side.

"Saix has reported that you have discovered your powers. A morph and a summoner of animal life. We don't have anyone here nearly as unique as that."

_Unique_

Every time she heard those words were it was when her mother was trying to calm her down after a hard day at school.

"You may change back now, we're done for the day. Saix will show you to your room."

One problem. She didn't know how to change back. This fact became evident to Xemnas rather quickly.

"Well you're energy should run out soon enough and you will change back whether you like to or not. Follow Saix, he will lead you to wear your should be spending the rest of your days."

The way he stated it made it sound like an ever binding contract. Like she would never leave. School was hard but she never had to worry about staying forever.

**/X/X/X/X/X/X/**

She followed him as she was told and on the way back she found herself switching from four legs to two as she transformed back into her 'human' form. The halls were long and seemed to go on forever as they walked but eventually they came to a room with "XIII" carved into the door and painted in with black paint.

"This is your room, if you ever want anything to make it feel...more at home....all you have to do is call one of the dusks and they will fetch it for you. There is a bed, a desk, a dresser with a mirror, and a journal. Do with them what you like."

He reached over and opened the door for her and then opened a portal and vanished. She slowly walked inside and inspected the area. As with everything else in the castle, everything was white. She walked over to the bed. It appeared comfortable enough. So she decided to test it out. Like any other teenage girl she proceeded to do so by turning and falling backwards on the bed. And like any good bed she bounced up a few times before firmly coming to a halt.

She soon rolled over onto her stomach. Had this been her old room she would have had a window directly next to her bed. Unfortunately, there were no windows in this room. Come to think of it, she hadn't even seen a window in the entire castle.

"I still can't believe any of this is happening"

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**Well, now you know her abilities ^^**


	5. Chapter 5

**So sorry it took me so long to upload! Please enjoy, rate, and review!**

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**Chapter 5**

Xiraria sat up in the bed and looked around the room once more. Her eyes stopped and she fixated on the mirror. Back home, the mirror was her best friend, as well as her worst enemy. She told herself that the mirror was the only thing that told her the truth. Yet, she had not visited her best friend since she arrived. She rose from where she was seated and slowly approached the mirror. With each step she took she could see more and more of herself starting from the top of her head and moving downward.

Before her face came completely into view she stopped. She was simply an empty shell of her old self, so would she still even look like herself? She wondered if she had finally achieved the beauty she always longed for. She hesitated for a moment, before squeezing her eyes shut and stepping forward a few more times. She slowly opened her eyes.

She was surprised to find that she had changed a bit, though not much. She still maintained the same body type, and her hair was the same deep brown color with unruly curls. However, like she observed in most of the other members, he eyes had changed drastically. The once pale brown eyes now had a hint of green to them the shined through the edges vibrantly, and what was brown became much darker and pure. They almost seemed to shine like he other member's did.

Still none of this pleased her. She stepped away from the mirror and decided to promenade around the castle, try to introduce herself to the other members. She walked over to the door and placed her hand on the knob. She took a deep breath in before turning it and opening the door. Just as before, the white hallway was still there, as it would always be, the way Xemnas talked.

She started naming the people she had already met. Well, the _three_ people she had already met. Xemnas, Saix, and Axel. She hadn't exactly been able to acquaint herself with any of them either. Judging from her number, XIII, there were twelve other members in this organization, which means she still had yet to meet nine of them.

She proceeded to assume that everyone just stayed in their rooms all the time, but was surprised to find that when she knocked on each door no one answered. It was not until she reached the door with the roman numeral two scrawled on it, that someone actually open their door in reply. Though she had not met this man she had an idea of what he was like from her introduction before.

"Well hello there, little lady, what brings you to my door?" as he spoke he got closer and closer, and she swore she could smell booze on his breath.

"I'm trying to meet everyone, hopefully," she paused for a moment to consider her words before she decided there was no other way to phrase it, "hopefully make some friends."

"Well I see you know problem with that!" he reached out and put his arm around her shoulders pulling her close, and squeezing her tightly. "Well, we'll make introductions quick then. I'm Xigbar," he lifted his hand and pointed to the number on his door, "number two in this lovely little organization of ours."

"N-nice to meet you." of all the people that had to actually open the door she wished it didn't have to be him. She was still a bit shaken up from her first impression of him. He seemed nice enough though.

"Why don't you come in, and we can talk a bit, hm?" he stepped back from the door and turned his back toward the wall, creating an opening for her to step in.

She hesitated. She couldn't shake the awful feelings she had about him. She caught a glimpse of his eye from the corner of her vision. They were still the same intimidating yellow up close as she observed from before.

"Um, that's o-"

She was cut off as he took hold of her arm and started playfully pulling her inside, "Ah come on! We spared a moment of our time for you, the least you could do is repay the debt!" The smell of alcohol became more apparent the more he pulled her into the room. She tried to pull her arm back but he easily overpowered her. Her feet slipped on the cold metal floor as she tried to push herself backward. She frantically swung her free arm hoping to land a hit. She was simply working against herself though, the more she tried to pull herself back, the harder he pulled back, and the further away he was that she couldn't make any contact with her desperate punches.

"Gosh, you act like I'm going to murder you or something, calm down!"

"She probably thinks you are, you drunken fool," this voice came from behind her, but she was fighting too much to worry about who it was, "you never know how to deal with people, let go of the poor girl," at that moment she felt another hand ,on her shoulder this time. The touch seemed kind, yet firm enough to hold her still against Xigbar's tugs, which eventually stopped.

She stepped backwards towards her savior after jerking her arm away from Xigbar's grasp. Yet, she still hadn't worked up the courage to turn around and face him.

"Thank you," it was the only thing she could muster up the might to do; she was shaking too badly.

"Xigbar, I suggest you go back into your room, and don't bother her again, and Xiraria, it would probably be wise for you to retire to your room for a while as well."

Xigbar let out a frustrated growl as he slammed the door, another act the caused her to maintain her nervous disposition. She focused so much of her own fear that she didn't feel grip leave her shoulder. She remained where she stood for a few minutes before snapping herself back to reality. She quickly turned around hoping to see the person that defended her. They weren't there, she looked both ways down the corridor, but still, no one.

She sighed ,regretting her inability to face the very person that came to her rescue. However, she decided she would at least obey they're wishes and return to her room.

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**Hehe. Can you guess who our "mystery" member is? hm? This is part of the reason I haven't added characters to the story preview yet. Don't want to spoil anything ^.~**


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